History 7 



colours, so brilliant that their names were on the 

 lips of everyone. 



The Botanical Magazine in 1817 pictures a 

 rose-coloured "decorative" type sent to England 

 by the Comte de Vandes, the first illustration 

 we have of this new form. 



From that time the popularity of the dahlia 

 grew apace until during the period of about 1840, 

 when it became a veritable craze. Both in 

 Europe and America large sums of money were 

 spent to buy the stock of a promising novelty. 

 The forms were always double; either of the 

 "decorative" type, though vastly inferior to the 

 modern California dahlias (the type in which 

 they so largely specialize), or of the ball-shaped 

 "show" type. Just previous to 1860 interest 

 in dahlias began to wane. Every colour and 

 combination of colours had been accomplished. 

 There were no more fields to conquer. In 1870 

 the National Dahlia Society was formed in 

 Great Britain with the hope of renewing the 

 flagging interest, and at that time appeared a 

 tiny ball-shaped blossom, originating probably 

 with Hartweg of Karlsruhe, which he called 

 "pompon." It attracted wide attention for a 

 time, but the stiffness of all these forms failed to 

 hold the interest of the pubHc, and soon dahlias 

 lapsed almost into obscurity. 



